The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue

We all make mistakes, but starting the Third World War would have been a rather large one. To this day, I still maintain it was not entirely my fault. But I'm getting ahead of myself. During the course of my life, I've barely escaped the wrath of an arms dealer in Hamburg, been strafed by a MiG during the Nigerian civil war, and landed during a bloody coup in Guinea-Bissau.

Night Train to Lisbon

Raimund Gregorious - Mundus, as his students affectionately call him - is a predictable character. A bookish Latin professor, well-respected but perhaps a little boring. One stormy morning, he encounters a beautiful, distraught Portuguese woman in a red leather coat... Later that day Raimund will realise: that moment changed everything. All of a sudden, nothing in his life feels right. His restlessness is further fuelled when he finds a book by a little-known Portuguese writer, Amadeo de Prado.

Conquerors: How Portugal Seized the Indian Ocean and Forged the First Global Empire

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire.

Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1682

The Golden Age of the Spanish Empire would establish five centuries of Western supremacy across the globe and usher in an era of transatlantic exploration that eventually gave rise to the modern world. It was a time of discovery and adventure, of great political and social change - it was a time when Spain learned to rule the world.

I Never Knew That About London

Best-selling author Christopher Winn takes us on a captivating journey around London to discover the unknown tales of our capital's history. Travelling through the villages and districts that make up the world's most dynamic metropolis, I Never Knew That About London unearths the hidden gems of legends, firsts, inventions, adventures and birthplaces that shape the city's compelling and at times turbulent past.

Alex says:"Informative good book"

Publisher's Summary

Throughout the Second World War, Lisbon was at the very center of the world's attention and was the only European city in which both the Allies and the Axis powers openly operated. Portugal was frantically trying to hold on to its self-proclaimed wartime neutrality but in reality was increasingly caught in the middle of the economic, and naval, wars between the Allies and the Nazis. The story is not, however, a conventional tale of World War II in that barely a shot was fired or a bomb dropped. Instead, it is a gripping tale of intrigue, betrayal, opportunism, and double-dealing, all of which took place in the Cidade da Luz and along its idyllic Atlantic coastline. It is the story of how a relatively poor European country not only survived the war physically intact but came out of it in 1945 much wealthier than it had been when war broke out in 1939. Portugal's emergence as a prosperous European Union nation would be financed in part, it turns out, by a cache of Nazi gold.

During the war, Lisbon was a temporary home to much of Europe's exiled royalty, over one million refugees seeking passage to the US, and to a host of spies, secret police, captains of industry, bankers, prominent Jews, writers and artists, escaped POWs, and black marketeers. An operations officer writing in 1944 described the daily scene at Lisbon's airport as being like the movie Casablanca - times twenty.

In this riveting narrative, renowned historian Neill Lochery draws on his relationships with high-level Portuguese contacts, records recently uncovered from Portuguese secret police and banking archives, and other unpublished documents to offer a revelatory portrait of the war's backstage.

What the Critics Say

"As interested as history readers may be in the spying, the economic war over tungsten and Allied demands for an Azores base dominate this history. A productive archival sleuth, Lochery makes original contributions to the literature of neutrality in WWII." (Booklist)

Excellent writing about a little known 'theatre' during WWII that happened in Portugal. A wide-ranging conscientious indepth researched book with fascinating photographs of the various participants taken during 1939-1945.

I didn’t know much (well truthfully – nothing) about the role that Portugal played in the Second World War when I opened Lisbon: War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939-45. I found Neil Lochery’s book both engaging, informative, and entertaining. In this volume, Lochery (While Blame Israel 2011; View from the Fence 2006) tells the story of how dictator Antonio Salazar kept Portugal neutral in WWII and left his country relatively intact after the conflict. I found insights into how Salazar dealt with day-to-day management of the country intriguing. Anecdotes revealing how Salazar made decisions and implemented policies are particularly interesting. Certainly, Salazar was a gifted leader in this context. I would have appreciated more discussion of fascism in this context and how Salazar fit into that era. Perhaps Lochery has another book which will shed more light. At any rate, I was well rewarded by reading this book. The narration of Robin Sachs is excellent.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Amazon Customer

Colombo, Sri Lanka

29/11/11

Overall

Performance

Story

"Little known"

I am a World War fan and thought I knew all about the first and second World Wars, that is until I read (heard) Lisbon. The story was fascinating. Portugal was lucky to escape the horrors of the 2nd world War, but could well have been entrapped into it. Its refusal to accept the fleeing Jews was indeed very sad and may have left a stigma on the nation. However a very good listen.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

J. M. Batista

25/03/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"A remarkable period in the history of Lisbon"

I was born in Lisbon and in my youth I still glimpsed the city and times the book refers to.

I felt transported to that epoch, such is the coherence of what I remember and know with the atmosphere recreated by the story and the narration.

I was unaware of some of the details of the planned occupation of the Azores and the gold trade but they certainly seem believable and in line with the known (to me) facts.

To the end the book abandons description and turns judgmental: it would have been a better book without that unnecessary twist.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

J. Charde

Lakeville, CT USA

20/02/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"great story but the writing could be better"

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The writer presented this too much like what I remember history books I read in school. Although the story is great and compelling, it could have been written much better

What did you like best about this story?

learning the story and role of Lisbon during the war; we had visited it this fall

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

If they could learn from Casablanca [good intro but couldn't sustain it]

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Arthur

North Kitsap County, Washington, USA

07/01/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"And I thought it was just the Allies who won WW2"

While I thought the narrator was very dry and monotone, I found "Lisbon: war in the shadows of the city of light" to be a very interesting book. I had no idea how much a player th neutral Portugal had been, on both sides, during WW2. The port city of Lisbon was major hub for european refugees headed for North America and Palistine as well as locally mined tungstan bound for Nazi Germany. The cafes and casinos were full of spies, celeberties, and royal ex-patriots and seemed alot like the real life version of the movie Casablanca. As much as I did enjoy this book, I did find it tragic that the Portugese Government was able to profit to the degree it did off of the suffering of others.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

joe blower

canada

24/12/11

Overall

Performance

Story

"great book"

What did you love best about Lisbon?

book is easy to listen to. very interesting in its narrative. It portrayed Mr Salazar in a very interesting light, certainly an immensely smart man that dealt with both warring sides with great diplomacy and tact and was able to keep Portugal safe. He describes in a very entertainng way the intricacies of the relationships taking place during the war,

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Ari

New York, NY, United States

01/12/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Insight into WWII Spy Culture - Nuetral Country?"

Who was your favorite character and why?

This was a fascinating book about a period of WWII that is not frequently covered. I really was able to get a good feel for what life was like in neutral Lisbon during that treacherous time. You are taken on a journey into the lives of European refugees seeking passage wandering through the pricey hotels to the various celebrities, spies and Nazi officers that occupy the casinos and restaurants. It’s an education of how all the earliest spy characters came into being, tracking both Ian Fleming and Graham Greene who were living there. There is also an interesting look into the balancing act that the Dictator Salazar had to perform between the alliance and the axis to serve Portuguese economic and national interests. The book portrays the dictator as a very shrewd and cool customer but does not go into the abuses that he is famous for. I would have loved to have learned more about why Portugal made the decisions it did and gotten a few more anecdotes into the adventures of some of these characters on the streets of Lisbon, but that just shows how much I enjoyed the book. Another helping please….

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Brad

Littleton, MA, United States

10/12/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"A Sideshow That Played A Major Role in WWII"

Portugal and its capital Lisbon were neutral during WWII. Despite this, Portugal played a major part in some of the key dramas, escapees from the pending Holocaust, wartime profiteering and asset/gold looting. The author paints a very interest scene of what a decadent wartime city of intrigue and deception Lisbon was. This is an area of history that has been largely neglected. I found it highly engaging and informative. Excellent narration.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Fictionwriter

Massachusetts

24/09/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Mostly about Antonio Salazar"

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

I listened to this book and wonder whether I would have finished it if I'd been reading it on the page. Lisbon was the Casablanca of the famous movie, the place where spies and diplomats and bankers all met to do their wartime business in a neutral capital. This is first and foremost the story of Salazar, the dictator who ruled Portugal for 36 years. His greatest achievement was to keep Portugal neutral through the war which meant he traded with both the British and the Germans.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Jonmontanavega

16/08/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"The story of Portugal in WWII remains to be told"

The bits of history of WWII as it played out in Spain and Portugal I've read elsewhere seem fascinating. Clearly there is material for a couple of excellent histories ... in the original sources. This is not one of them. Probably there are already a couple in Spanish or Portugese deserving of translation.

The author seems not to have access to much more than British cables, although he does refer to other documents. Although fiction, the book "The Time Inbetween" by Maria Duenas, about Spain during a similar period, provides as much insight ... along with better writing. Duenas I highly recommend.

The performance is fine.

If you have access to a B & N, I recommend you peruse the paper version before spending a credit on the oral one.

IMHO

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

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